By Adeyera Damilola (The New Diplomat’s politics desk)
Following the news of the Supreme Court sacking of the Governor of Imo state, Emeka Ihedioha, the real reasons as to why his election was nullified has emerged.
The New Diplomat recalls that a seven-man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, on Tuesday had unanimously declared Hope Uzodinma as the winner of the March 9, 2019 governorship election and the validly elected governor of the state.
The Supreme Court has now come out to explain why and what led to the sacking of Ihedioha of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and why Hope Uzodinma of All Progressives Congress, APC, was declared Governor.
The seven-man panel led by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, observed that in 388 polling units, results were unlawfully set aside when the collation of the final governorship election result in Imo state was ongoing.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who read the joint judgment of the apex court, said, “Votes due to the appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, and APC from 388 polling units were wrongly excluded from scores ascribed to the appellant (to them).
“His return as the elected governor of Imo State is hereby declared null and void and accordingly set aside.
“It is hereby declared that first appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, is winner of the governorship of Imo State held on March 9, 2019.
“The certificate issued to Ihedioha is hereby withdrawn. It is hereby ordered that the certificate of return shall be issued to the first appellant, Senator Hope Uzodinma, forthwith and he should be sworn in as governor of Imo State.”
In a related development, a Nigerian-New-York based journalist, Churchill Umoren has described the ousted governor, Ihedioha, as a man whose hands were dirty and should not have been declared winner ab initio.
Umoren, in a post on his Facebook page on Wednesday morning, said although Ihedioha got the majority of votes cast according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, he did not meet the threshold of 1/4 of the votes cast in at least 2/3 of Imo state.
The New York based Journalist said there should have been a re-run as votes from 388 polling units in Hope Uzodinma’s strongholds were curiously cancelled by collation officers.
His post read in part: “The tribunal proceedings indicated that votes from 388 polling units were canceled by Collation Officer instead of Presiding Officers who are the only people empowered by law to cancel results.
“388 cancelled polling units result meant for Uzodinma was 213,295. Others got fractions.
Supreme Court added it to the initial 96,458 of Hope Uzodinma, he gets a total of 309, 753.
This enabled Uzodinma’s votes to topple Ihedioha’s votes.”
Umoren went on to explain that Hope Uzodinma came 3rd because Uche Nwosu of Action Alliance, AA who came second was disqualified.
“He was disqualified for purchasing two tickets, one from APC, and the other from AA. As at the time of getting nominated by AA he hadn’t resigned from APC and he later withdrew his case.” Umoren added.
